Events and Announcements: 21 January 2024

To have your event or announcement featured in next week’s post, please send a link and a brief description to ojeventsandannouncements@gmail.com. 

Calls for Papers

Nottingham International Criminal Justice Conference: The University of Nottingham School of Law, in partnership with the International Criminal Justice Unit of the University of Nottingham Human Rights Law Centre, is organising a conference on 8–9 July 2024 that will bring together people working across the diverse field of international criminal justice. At this interdisciplinary conference, we are aiming to foster connections between academics, practitioners and policymakers, as we hear about recent developments in research and practice, and explore, discuss and debate current issues in the field. Those interested in presenting should submit a 300 word abstract on their proposed presentation by 17 March 2024. Read more here and submit an abstract here.

National Law School Business Law Review Volume 10: The Editorial Board of the NLS Business Law Review (NLSBLR) for 2023-24 is inviting original and unpublished submissions for the upcoming print Volume 10 of the Journal. The NLSBLR is a student-run journal at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru, India’s premier law school. Our goal is to recognise and foster cutting-edge academic scholarship on commercial law. Over the years, since the publication of our first volume in 2015, we have featured scholarship by a diverse range of leading academics, advocates, judges, scholars, and other luminaries, such as Justice V. Ramasubramanian (Judge, Supreme Court of India), Mr. Philip R. Wood CBE, KC (Yorke Distinguished Fellow, University of Cambridge), Prof. (Dr.) Regis Bismuth (Professor, SciencesPo Law School), Mr. Matthew Hodgson (Partner, Allen & Overy LLP), Mr. Rajat Sethi (Founder & Managing Partner, S&R Associates), and Prof. (Dr.) James J. Nedumpara (Professor, Jindal Global Law School). The Journal is indexed in prominent databases like HeinOnline, SCC Online, and the Indian University Grants Commission’s Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics (UGC-CARE).

The Journal intends to foster academic scholarship in commercial law by examining the myriad regulatory and legal frameworks, be it domestic or international, that impact business and commerce in either India or abroad. We particularly welcome submissions with a comparative law perspective, with a focus on India or the developing country context generally. Our mandate, amongst other things, includes company law, securities law, banking and finance, tax law, international investment law, international commercial arbitration, commercial dispute resolution, intellectual property law, contract law, and employment law. Detailed submission guidelines (along with the process for submission) for the Journal are available on our website.

Events

Planet Unplugged: Land and Environment Defenders: Please join us for a lecture hosted by Essex Law School and the Human Rights Centre at the University of Essex on 23 January 2024 at 5pm. Phyllis Omido will be presenting the lecture. Phyllis Omido has become known globally for her work in Kenya as a land and environment defender. Based in the village of Owino Uhuru near Mombasa in she began a campaign to stop the pollution from a nearby smelting plant that was polluting the water, soil and air in the village. People were becoming ill and dying. She founded the Centre for Justice, Governance and Environmental Action (CJGEA) and was arrested and along with other members of the group. After being exonerated and after a number of years campaigning the smelting plant was eventually closed down. In 2021 CJGEA won an Environmental Class Action Suit that awarded compensation to the Owino Uhuru community. However, the award was overturned by the Court of Appeal and is now awaiting a further appeal by CJGEA that will be heard by Kenya’s Supreme Court. Phyllis will talk about her own work in Kenya and also about the challenges faced by other human and environmental rights defenders in other parts of the world.

The lecture will be chaired by Dr Andrew Fagan, Director of the Human Rights Centre and will have Dr Avidan Kent, University of East Anglia as discussant. A drinks reception will follow the lecture. Please register here.

Reflections on a Career in International Criminal Law: Intersectionality and Representation: 30 January 2024 at 10:00 CET, hosted by MINERVA Law Network. International criminal justice lawyer Angela Mudukuti takes us through her journey in international criminal law (ICL), reflecting on the importance of gender balance, intersectionality, and representation in all forms to enhance ICL and ensure it serves survivors and victims of egregious crimes.

Angela Mudukuti is the Legal Advocacy Director at the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Waging Justice for Women initiative. She is a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, specialized in international criminal law. Angela has worked for a number of organizations including the International Criminal Court, Open Society Foundations, Human Rights Watch, Wayamo Foundation, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights. With a gender lens, she has focused on strategic litigation, advocacy, and capacity building. Her work experience includes training prosecutors and investigators to enhance domestic capacity to tackle international crimes; working on universal jurisdiction and precedent-setting cases before South African courts, including seeking the arrest of the former president of Sudan during his visit to South Africa. She has written and published on international criminal law issues in books, journals, and newspapers and has been featured in the media, including the Financial Times and Al Jazeera. She sits on several editorial committees, including the Oxford Journal for International Criminal Justice and Opinio Juris. Register here.

Announcements

Special Issue: The Legal Accountability of Transnational Institutions: Past, Present and Future: Co-edited by Rishi Gulati and Philippa Webb, the Special Issue of the King’s Law Journal, Volume 34, Issue 3 on “The Legal Accountability of Transnational Institutions: Past, Present and Future” is now out. The 9 articles in this Special Issue are authored by leading experts on the accountability of public international organisations (IOs), MNCs, as well as NGOs. The Introduction is open access and discusses what may be learnt by comparing the legal accountability of IOs, MNCs and NGOs. In addition to the Introductory article by Rishi Gulati and Philippa Webb, the Special Issue consists of the following contributions. Assessing the Accountability Mechanism of Multilateral Development Banks Against Access to Justice: The Case of the World Bank (Edward Chukwuemeke Okeke); Holding International Organizations Accountable: Recent Developments in U.S. Immunities Law (David P. Stewart); Protecting Human Rights in UN Peacekeeping: Operationalising Due Diligence and Accountability (Nigel D. White); Nature and Scope of an International Organisation’s Due Diligence Obligations Under International Environmental Law: A Case Study of the Caribbean Development Bank (S. Nicole Liverpool Jordan); Civil Liability Under Sustainability Due Diligence Legislation: A Quiet Revolution? (Youseph Farah, Valentine Kunuji & Avidan Kent); Accountability of NGOs: The Potential of Business and Human Rights Frameworks for NGO Due Diligence (Rosana Garciandia); Arbitrating disputes with international organisations and some access to justice issues (August Reinisch); Transnational Procedural Guarantees – The Role of Domestic Courts (Dana Burchardt).